Detail of the arches and roadway. Image source: Woodward, Calvin Milton. A History of the St. Louis Bridge. St. Louis, G. I. Jones and Company, 1881, pl. 19.

Centuries of Civil Engineering

A Rare Book Exhibition Celebrating the Heritage of Civil Engineering

Lecture Videos

April 2, 2014

“Moving, Dredging, Spanning, Building”

Part I, Session I

A Cockefair / Linda Hall Library course

William Ashworth, professor Emeritus of History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Consultant for the History of Science at the Linda Hall Library.


April 2, 2014

“Moving, Dredging, Spanning, Building”

Part I, Session II

A Cockefair / Linda Hall Library course

William Ashworth, professor Emeritus of History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Consultant for the History of Science at the Linda Hall Library.


April 9, 2014

“Moving, Dredging, Spanning, Building”

Part II

A Cockefair / Linda Hall Library course

William Ashworth, professor Emeritus of History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Consultant for the History of Science at the Linda Hall Library.


April 16, 2014

“Moving, Dredging, Spanning, Building”

Part III

A Cockefair / Linda Hall Library course

William Ashworth, professor Emeritus of History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Consultant for the History of Science at the Linda Hall Library.


April 30, 2014

“Moving, Dredging, Spanning, Building”

Part IV

A Cockefair / Linda Hall Library course

William Ashworth, professor Emeritus of History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Consultant for the History of Science at the Linda Hall Library.


April 22, 2021

“Making the Grade: The Future of America’s Infrastructure”

(Moderator) Dan McNichol, Bestselling Author and Award-Winning Journalist

Aaron Attebery, Director, Connected Communities, Black & Veatch

Dr. Kenneth Gillingham, Associate Professor of Economics, Yale University

Mary Joyce Ivers, Deputy Public Works Director, Ventura, California; and President, American Public Works Association

Maria Lehman, Director of U.S. Infrastructure, GHD; and Treasurer, American Society of Civil Engineers


October 19, 2022

“Engineered Irony: Octave Chanute’s Kansas City Bridge”

David W. Jackson, historian and author